Regional Info

Support felt with the outpouring of signatures

Already a gold medal Special Olympics athlete, Darren Boryskavich has earned a place on the Town of Russell, Manitoba’s Olympic board.

Darren Boryskavich is a well-known name around the community. Darren grew up in Russell, attending Major Pratt School until his graduation in 1995. Darren is an exceptional athlete, representing Russell at many sporting events over the decades.

Darren Boryskavich has competed in the Special Olympics since the age of 10. Most recently, he competed in the 2016 Special Olympics Canada Winter Games in Corner Brook, Newfoundland. Darren competes in many sporting events on a local, provincial, and national level. He has an outstanding 28 gold medals as well as nine silver, and six bronze. Noted are his two Order of Sports Excellence medals and another 40 plus trophies for Darren’s outstanding athleticism.

Darren won a gold medal for 5 pin bowling in 2009 at the Special Olympics World Summer Games and also won a silver medal at the Special Olympics Canada Winter Games in 2010.

Many have wondered why this gold medal Olympian is not recognized on the Russell sign with Russell’s other Olympic athletes. Travis Rice also had that same question.

“I’d like to see Darren get the recognition he deserves. He is a medalist as well,” Travis mentions as he talks about the reason behind the initiative.

With that, Travis a grade 10 student at Major Pratt, a set out to find an answer to Darren’s missing recognition.

Travis contacted the Town of Russell to ask what the process would be to get Darren recognized. He was informed that that the Russell sign was started by the community and therefore in order for changes and additions to be made, a petition needed to be completed before anything could happen. In a short period of time, Travis collected 82 signatures with 50 in the first day and the list keeps growing.

Since obtaining the signatures, Travis has followed up with the Town of Russell to inform them of the required information he has collected in support of the changes to the sign. He was told that with the amount of signatures collected, the Town of Russell can start the process to get Darren proudly recognized on the Russell billboard as the gold medal Special Olympics athlete that he is.

With the outpouring of town support, it is felt that recognizing Darren is definitely long overdue.